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Monday, October 24, 2011

Update Yourself on Africa

Africa has been in the news a lot in the past couple of weeks. Sure, the biggest story is the death of Gaddafi, but the news wire is buzzing with major events all over the continent. As I've mentioned before, you should keep yourself up to date on these current events, because they impact us, and will continue to impact us and our foreign policy for years to come.

For social issues perhaps the biggest story is Morgan Tsvangirai's about-face on gay rights. Gay rights is a really hot topic across Africa, particularly because of the harsh punishments, including death to the openly gay. Not only has the Zimbabwean Prime Minister changed his tune, but he is referring to sexual choice as a human right. Now, if we could only get rid of the nemesis, Mugabe.

Earlier today there were two bombings in Nairobi, Kenya, one at a bar and one at a bus stop. This is particularly concerning because they come just days after threats from al-Shabab, the al Qaeda linked terrorist extremists. The group has had a strong hold on much of Somalia, including Mogadishu but an African alliance of troops has recently made significant gains in the area. In fact, they've almost completely forced al-Shabab from Mogadishu.

And we recently heard the US was sending a small cadre of troops into Uganda to fight the Lord's Resistance Army. The LRA are a scary bunch of brainwashed central Africans led by a mad man. I was unaware of the extent of their terrorist reign over the region. I came across a fantastic website that you should visit LRACrisisTracker.org. These folks are doing amazing work assembling critical information and attempting to spread the word.

3 comments:

Search Maps for my blog and I found your blog. I love maps and geography. But I really love the irony is that there may be in the maps. The images or words that go beyond what they represent. Or things that come and one day it disappeared. Or the history of peoples. I write from Barcelona, Catalonia, and I like your blog. The story smaller. Or the biggest change. A bit of this and madness. Quit thinking about your blog that I made a good discovery. Thank you and good luck.jordi franceschhttp://cartografic.wordpress.com/

@texasgeography I too saw Invisible Children a few years back in school. It was a very moving film. This post makes me think about how often Africa is overlooked in today's world but it really should not be because there are so many things happening one the continent that have global impacts.http://fascinatingmaps.blogspot.com/